Going Nowhere Fast…

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Well through some benign act of benevolence I seem to have made it to 50, or as the kids call it “Fiddy” this past June.

Seeing how it has been a while since I have done something truly stupid I though “hey hold my beer” and went out and purchased an electric skateboard, or as the kids call it an eBoard… I ordered it in May knowing that there would be a lead time in shipping. I had hoped that it would be here in time for my 50th B Day but that was not to be.

It finally arrived on Tuesday the 7th.

Can I Haz???

Of course the cat saw a new box and wanted his due…

None too patient is the kitty.

So upon opening the box expecting the cat to get in the box I find that I don’t actually get to have the first ride on my new board.

Mine Bi**h, Back off

Of course it then started pouring down rain so my first ride was a bit delayed. I got a short ride Wednesday and then a longer ride today.

And yes apparently it is fast enough to do something stupid on, which was one of my top requirements, and this is just in expert mode. There are two more modes, Pro and Hyper which I have not even looked at yet as I am still trying to figure out how to ride a board again after 33 years. And yes I have fallen off of it already at low speed. ATGATT (All The Gear All The Time) and bounced right back up with narry a scratch. Yes it’s fun and no you can’t ride it…

Well in my efforts to shed my Facebook account I felt that it was time to revive the old blog. So Here goes, and maybe I will keep it up. No promises but I will try.

So in 2017 I got the Datsun into fighting trim and as the last post noted it did not go well, but here is what it looked like. There are some big changes coming in the rear end of the car to make it stronger and more reliable so I can figure out how to go faster in it…

New Aero all complete

So my buddy Mike and I made Aero and drove the car till we broke it and then fixed it and broke it again and again and again…

Mike heading around the course

Mike heading up the hill

So thats what it look like today in the driveway and on course. All the changes this year are going to be under the skin…

Last year was a rough year for the old Datsun race car. We got 9 runs in out of something around 70 something possible runs. The rest we broke the car during practice starts at every pro solo except for the Finally in Lincoln Nebraska. Where we got in 7 runs before the output shaft of the Diff decided it was time to retire. I put a new one in but we did not run again in the pro solo finally deciding instead to run it in the regular nationals finally and hopefully get in 6 runs and at least complete one national event for the year…

Toledo Ohio

Toledo Ohio

Then we got home and fixed everything only to repeat in Oscoda Michigan this time we blew up the diff instead of the Universal joint followed by the transmission output shaft which is what we blew up in Toledo.

Oscoda, MI

Then we got to Lincoln Nebraska and blew up a diff output shaft again just like in Oscoda.

Lincoln. NB

The car looked like this most of this year, here it is assuming the position in Lincoln Nebraska.

Lincoln NB

Changes are afoot for this year since last year was such a disaster. More to come.

Since Borepatch nudged my comment section asking for an update on my Racecar and its stumbling after 5K RPM I figured I would post up. So I was able to get the 240Z running again just in time for Solo Nationals in September. Well I made an appointment with my tuner Peter Florance since the car felt a little sluggish and thats not the way to go to Nationals…

Upon the first Dyno pull we were a bit dismayed to see that there were only 112 ponies running to the rear wheels. So 58 ponies seem to have fled the corral. We changed the plugs on the Dyno as well as trying a whole bunch of other things, eventually we were able to coax 132 ponies which was a bit of a disappointment but a whole lot better than where we started that day. Peter figured that we had a cylinder down, so when I got the car back to the house we did a compression check and sure enough the number 4 cylinder was only at 120 PSI where the rest were some where around 165. So #4 had left the building.

I headed to Nationals with a sick motor with the intent to just have fun.

Fun was had…

I even ended up with a co-driver when his BSP BMW M3 grenades its clutch plate and none of the other single driver cars would let him come play. I warned him that I had a Volvo motor and it was really down on power but he still wanted a ride, can you blame him after driving 1500 miles…

So after Nationals it was time to get the motor rebuilt. So it was pulled and when we took the head off the #4 cylinder wall was pretty scored. I had decided that this motor would be built to the BSP rules. So nothing was left undone, overbored the cylinders 1mm which was the maximum allowed, new dished pistons. I got 4 sets of factory springs so I could measure them with a spring gauge and get 12 springs that were at the upper limits of the factory spring rates. Lash pads were done and the valve timing was adjusted for optimal performance. I just got the motor back a few weeks ago and it looks like this now.

My good friend Mike came over and 4 hours later this was the end result…

So now I am doing a few things that my tuner suggested as far as the intake is concerned and will do the first start on Wednesday or Thursday and then off to the tuner after 30 minutes to an hour of break in at moderate RPMs… Hopefully I will see 180HP…

Anyway maybe it is time to start blogging again now that I have stopped using FaceCock.

So here we have another shooting in a gun free zone target rich environment, and the president is outraged…

Give us a break. Were you outraged when 36 people were shot and killed in September in Chicago? Nope, did not even bat an eye? How about the 25 in Baltimore in the last 30 days? Nope… Not a word.

Why? There was no political gain by publicizing the 60 murders from those two cities.

Guns don’t just jump up and shoot on their own, it takes a person behind the gun to commit these vile acts. I am betting that the guy that did this last shooting also got his guns through legal means and passed the background checks. Background checks are only going to weed out the people who are already criminals (who don’t get their guns through legal means in the first place). You can’t fix crazy but you can try and make sure that YOU are prepared should crazy intrude on your life.

Only you are responsible for your own safety. But that is hard work and most people won’t put out the effort required to ensure their own safety. They think the police will keep them safe.

Have to get up at 3AM tomorrow and I am not looking forward to it. Heading back to the east coast after being in Phoenix for the last week helping out with the family after my Mom had a minor stroke. My sister went home on Wednesday but I planned on staying a bit longer in case Dad needing any help. Turns out the microwave broke on Wednesday and needed replaced. Only a couple holes were different on the mount for the new one so some drilling was required. It would have been too much work for my Dad so it was good I was still here. My parents replaced their old range at the same time but that was no issue.

I met up with Aric and Dan yesterday and we had a good time chewing the fat over lunch at Twin Peaks. The scenery was nice and the food was ok but nothing to write home about. Good times were had.

So when I get home it will be time to try and figure out why my 240Z is having timing sync losses above 5000 RPM. Joy…

Life moves on. The Z is a running race car, which means something is always breaking. Right now that is the motor management which means that the car currently has a high rpm drop out on the crank sensor which I am struggling to figure out. Could be noise, could be I don’t know what…

I think I am finally done with Facecock. It has gotten to the point of being an annoyance more than anything else. So maybe it is time to start writing here again. Or not. We shall see.

Wrapped up the exhaust and fuel system this weekend, Was all ready to work on ensuring the timing as such were right with the old timing light. But when we cranked the car it seems that the coil circuit is blowing its fuse. I originally thought the D581 coils were LS1 coils and wired them that way. After exhaustive head scratching and research on the inter webs it seems that the coils may in fact be LS2 coils and they are flipped from what I have in the car right now. Sigh…

I ordered new pigtails as my custom made pigtails can’t be easily changed over (I think and will verify tomorrow) as you have to run the wire through the connector and then crimp and solder the little metal ends on and then draw them into the connector. If that is in fact the case I will not be able to reuse the connectors easily and getting GM pre made pigtails would be easier.

So Officially I have two things left to do. The parking brakes and the fender flares. I hope to knock the fender flares out this week or weekend and then the parking brake soon after.

Race season is upon us and I am ready to drive the car after the last 500 or so hours of wrenching on the car.

Well one of the other big hangups with my Z build has been the gas tank. The one that came with the car was in pretty good shape on the outside but unfortunately there was gas left in it since 1984 or so when it was last on the road. So the inside of the tank is horrible. It is like Godzilla took a shit in there and they just sealed it up.

So I went to my buddies secret Z parts hideout in PA a few weeks ago and picked through his tanks. He had 3 sealed tanks and they were all spotless on the inside, no rust whatsoever. The outside however was a different story. There was tons of surface rust. I took the worst of the lot as my buddy still needed a tank or two. Here is the tank once I had wire wheeled it a little and before the Red-Kote coating that is going in the tank because I may be using E85 in this build.

I had to wait this long to do the Red-Kote because it had to stay above 60° in order for me to coat the tank. Well it was in the eighties this weekend so it was time to coat the inside of the tank

You can see more surface rust on the bottom of the tank and the last of the Red-Kote dripping out. I had to then wait 24 hours before treating the rust on the outside. So first thing in the morning I set it out in the driveway to bask in the sun. Around 2pm it was time to treat the rust. I am using Corroseal as it actually chemically converts the rust instead of just coating it and isolating it from the atmosphere like POR-15. It goes on white and creamy.

After a few hours anywhere that was rust turned black while anywhere that was bare metal or old paint and primer it was clear.

Most of the bottom of the tank was fairly rusty so now I have a nice black tank in most places.

Now I will give it another shot of primer and then black paint out of a rattle can it will be ready to go back into the car once I mount and plumb the fuel pump.